The Independent reminds us that there are only 331 days until the UN climate talks begin in Copenhagen.  The article is a good primer for the uninitiated and gives a sense of the real urgency for a global agreement to effectively address global warming.

One thing the article does is to nicely and pithily articulate the three major issues to be worked out over the course of the next 11 months.  The first challenge is getting the industrialized countries to agree to strong binding reductions of greenhouse gases.  The second is getting developing countries--especially India and China--to agree to reducing their emissions somewhere below the projected "business as usual" levels.  Finally, there needs to be an adequately funded mechanism that will provide the poorest countries in the world resources to adapt to the changing climate in the immediate term.

These are the main three issues.  The US is being looked to as a leader given the change in administration; so it will be important to closely watch how Obama and his advisers stake out their positions based on these three issues.